Falls are a leading cause of injuries and effect millions of people every year. Many of these falls involve use of a ladder. Despite being considered basic tools, ladders are inherently dangerous. Some people may discount the dangerous nature of the ladders and thus can fall and suffer serious injuries, or even death. To help prevent falls, some extension ladders include cable hooks or other safety systems for stabilizing the ladders. Cable hooks, for example, can couple the ladder with a telephone cable, power line or the like, that is stretched in space. A cable hook, however, can unexpectedly detach from the cable during use of the ladder and result in a fall. To prevent such detachments, some conventional cable hooks include an adjacent latch for retaining the cable within the cable hook but require a rope to extend the length of the ladder for remotely opening the latch to manually release the cable after use of the ladder.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved safety system and method for preventing falls from ladders and other elevated platforms that overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of currently-available ladder safety systems.
It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.